..and to my fellow destroyermen, from WWII to the present.

USS Aaron Ward (DD-483)

Lost in action, April 1943.

USS Fletcher (DD-445)

The first of the finest.

USS O'Bannon (DD-450)

Second most decorated ship of WWII.

USS Allen M. Sumner (DD-692)

Lead ship of the class and served with distinction for nearly 30 years.

USS Mannert L. Abele (DD-733)

Lost in action, April 1945.

USS Forrest Sherman (DD-931)

Lead ship of the last class of all-gun destroyers built for the U.S. Navy.

USS Manley (DD-940)

My ship.

More ships to follow..

USNVet940

My brother isn't here so I'll say "Thank You" for him and for your tribute to one of the "Cans" on which he had been a member of the Crew. The O'Bannon DD450.

As a qualified Radar/Sonar man, I visualize him climbing that mast aft of the bridge one time to repair something that had knocked both out.

He did admit that one time up there in a rather choppy sea was enough and not a picnic.

Sgtleo

You're quite welcome, Sarge. in memory of your brother and his service on the "cans". I know I'm just "a little" prejudiced in my opinion that destroyers have always been some of the fightingest ships in the fleet but their record (especially in WWII) speaks for itself. As I saluted the submarines that made such an invaluable contribution to the victory in the Pacific, it only seemed fitting to do so for the ships which have always been my first love.

It's funny that you mentioned that about your brother having to climb the mast to fix a piece of equipment. I was browsing through some pics online yesterday of some of the Arleigh Burke DDG's and came across a photo looking down from the mast as a crew member was climbing up it to do some work. Seeing the deck so far below in the photo made me even more glad that I was a 'deckape'.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: USNVet940,

Fourth oldest brother was a TIN CAN sailor, Korea USS PHiLip

quote:

Originally posted by YankeeeSgt:
Fourth oldest brother was a TIN CAN sailor, Korea USS PHiLip

I don't have a pic of the Philip but I've got the next best thing:



This illustration is of her in her WWII configuration. What few photos I've seen of Philip were either censored during the war (photos retouched to blot out the gunnery and ship radars) or were taken after she and a lot of the Fletcher's had their ASW capabilities upgraded.

Surfing around Navy sites I found this. Hope it's the right ship!!!

USS Philip (DD-498) underway on her delivery voyage, off Kearny, New Jersey, 20 November 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.



Sgtleo

Sgt Leo..... Nice pic, loooks sleek n fast.

USN 1940 That class had five , five inch guns an not jjust four?

Take a closer look and you'll see there are 5 Gun Turrets - 2 Forward and 3 aft.

Will go back and here are Guns Specs for that Class Destroyer:-

Armament
Five 5"/38 caliber guns
Five 40mm twin anti-aircraft mounts
Two 21" quintuple torpedo tubes

Follow down under Philip DD 498 in photo and you'll see the 3 Aft. 2 are facing aft 1,and 1 is facing bow

Forward two are very clear to see.

Sgtleo

Heh, Heh, I just read that the USS. Philip was a movie star.

Remember the movie "in Harms Way", with J.Wayne and K.Douglas when their cruiser took a torpedo early in the movie?
The DD that pulled along side to assist was the Philip.

quote:

Originally posted by Sgtleo:


Surfing around Navy sites I found this. Hope it's the right ship!!!

USS Philip (DD-498) underway on her delivery voyage, off Kearny, New Jersey, 20 November 1942. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.



Sgtleo

That's her, Sarge. As can be seen, the photo was retouched by wartime censors to remove the main battery director (above the bridge) radar. Some photos were so heavily censored during the war, the gun director was blotted out completely and the main mast just looked like a stick. At the same time, I have hundreds of photos of everything from subs to carriers taken during the war that were not censored at all, so I have to wonder what the purpose was in only randomly censoring certain ones.

I know...I'm a picky SOB but, to me, the heavy censoring detracts from the inherent beauty of the ships in their 'full dress'.

Yankeee...Yes, the Fletcher's were designed and built with five 5"/38 DP mounts, two forward and three aft (as SgtLeo pointed out). That remained unchanged through the war, although their secondary armament of 20mm and 40mm guns varied from ship to ship. Typically, each ship mounted between 6-10 40mm's (in twin and quadruple mounts) and 7-10 20mm's.

After the war, though, many of the Fletcher's lost up to three of the 5" mounts as the Navy sought to increase their ASW capabilities in response to the growing Soviet submarine threat.

quote:

Originally posted by YankeeeSgt:
Heh, Heh, I just read that the USS. Philip was a movie star.

Remember the movie "in Harms Way", with J.Wayne and K.Douglas when their cruiser took a torpedo early in the movie?
The DD that pulled along side to assist was the Philip.

Right you are, Yankeee! I must have seen that movie a dozen times but never could remember what the hull number was of the DD in that scene until I checked. I also found out that there were four other Fletcher's involved in the movie...Braine, Renshaw, Walker, and (I think SgtLeo will get a kick out of this ) O'Bannon...and the cruiser was St. Paul.

I've had to cool it with that DVD for awhile. Or play the movie when my wife is out. I've played it so many times.
But I still love that rush when I hear the bugle sounding general quarters ...and hear the rush and footfalls of the crew running to "Battle Stations."
If you look close enough when "Duke" goes in and out of the door to the Captain's Cabin, you can see the St. Paul ship's seal.

USS John Rodgers (DD-574)

Longest serving Fletcher and the last of the "high"(round) bridge Fletcher's. Commissioned in 1943, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve in 1946. Transferred to the Mexican Navy in 1968, she continued to serve until her final decommissioning in 2002. She has since been acquired by Beaumont Tower Corp. and will be restored as a museum ship in Mobile, Al.

USS Callaghan (DD-792)

Named for Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan, killed in action on the bridge of heavy cruiser San Francisco (CA-38) during the savage Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 13 November 1942. Lost in action in July, 1945.

USS Maddox (DD-731)

One of the two destroyers involved in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident in August, 1964. Transferred to Taiwan in 1972, decommissioned and scrapped in 1985.

USS Turner Joy (DD-951)

The second destroyer involved in the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. She is now a museum ship in Bremerton, WA.

USS Spruance (DD-963)

Lead ship of the class and named for Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, one of the most famous naval leaders in WWII. She served with distinction for nearly 30 years before being decommissioned. Sunk as a target in December, 2006.

USS Arleigh Burke (DDG-51)

Lead ship of a new "stealthy" class of destroyers, she is named for Admiral Arleigh "31-knot" Burke, former CNO and CO of the famous DesRon23, "The Little Beavers", during WWII.

USNVet940:-

Finally was able to find a photo of another brothers ship.

They operated in the Pacific and as I understand it, one of their main duties was as a base ship?? for a series of Frogman Teams. They would have been used if Japan was to be invaded but the "Bomb" took care of that.I recall Joe said they were actually in and/or around Nagasaki Harbor.

My other brother - the Lifer - was ape when he came home from Sampson Boots with a 2nd Class Elec. Rate since he was working for a Naval Facility prior to enlistment.


USS Schmitt (DE-676 / APD-76),



Sgtleo

FYI

Data on USS Schmitt

Aloysius H. Schmitt (4 December 1909 - 7 December 1941) was born in St. Lucas, Iowa. He was appointed Acting Chaplain with rank of Lieutenant (jg.) in the United States Navy on 28 June 1939. He was serving on board the battleship USS Oklahoma (BB-37) when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. When his ship capsized, he became entrapped, along with other members of the crew, in a compartment where only a small porthole provided outlet for escape. He assisted a number of men through the porthole, and then gave up his own chance to escape so that more men might be rescued. He received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal posthumously for his courage and self-sacrifice.

USS Schmitt, DE-676, was the first ship named in his honor.
------------------------------------------------
Awards, Citations and Campaign Ribbons
Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive) - American Campaign Medal
Second Row: Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 1 star - European-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal - World War II Victory Medal
----------------------------------------------
Class: Buckley Type: TE (turbine-electric drive, 3" guns)
Displacement: 1,400 tons (std) 1,740 tons (full) Dimensions: 306' (oa), 300' (wl) x 36' 9" x 13' 6" (max)
Armament: 3-3"/50 Mk22 (1x3), 1-1.1"/75 Mk2 quad AA (4x1), 8 x 20mm Mk 4 AA, 3 x 21" Mk15 TT (3x1),
1 Hedgehog Projector Mk10 (144 rounds), 8 Mk6 depth charge projectors, 2 Mk9 depth charge tracks
Machinery: 2 "D" Express boilers, G.E. turbines with electric drive, 12000 shp, 2 screws
Speed: 24 knots Range: 4,940 nm @ 12 knots Crew: 15 / 198
------------------------------------------------
Operational and Building Data
Laid down by Bethlehem Steel, Quincy MA on 22 February 1943
Launched 19 May 1943, Commissioned 23 July 1943
Decommissioned 2 January 1945 for redesignation and conversion to APD-76(conversion carried out at US Naval Frontier Base, Tompkinsville, Staten Island, NY)
Recommissioned as APD-76, 3 April 1945
Decommissioned 28 June 1949, Stricken 1 May 1967

Sgtleo

Sarge:

Some more info on the Schmitt I thought you'd be interested in:

http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/s7/schmitt.htm

As a DE, she was involved in convoy escort in the Atlantic before being converted into an APD and moving to the Pacific. The little gal certainly got around.

A venerable client of mine, now in his late 80s, served aboard USS Goff, a flush-decker, then aboard USS Samuel N Moore, during the overall period from early 1942 until he was discharged in 1946. I had the supreme pleasure of introducing him to some online pictures and crew lists I found, resources he did not know were so readily available.

HH

Good stuff, HH. NavSource and Destroyer History are the two best sites (IMO) for photos and histories on the "cans". Here's the links to them if he hasn't seen them yet:

http://www.destroyerhistory.org/destroyers/index.html

http://navsource.org/

Thanks for the links, USNVet940.

I think the Navsource is what I used first, a couple of years ago now. I'll look forward to looking through the other link and will print up whatever prints and pics I can for him.

He's a neat old gentleman, probably typical of WWII junior officers. I was mistaken earlier about his age--he's now 87. He'd graduated from college at age 21 in 1942 (high school was only 11 years at that time in NC). He was part of the "rapid training" for junior officers while in college, so by 1943 he was aboard USS Goff and served there during her Panama Canal area patrols as well as the other Carribiean Sea patrols. He took the transocean trip to the Med during which Goff or Goff's group was credited with 8 U-boat kills. After transfer to USS Samuel N Moore, he marveled at the newness of her. USS Goff was built in the early 1920s and by 1944 had been rode hard and put up wet. She was scrapped in 1947.

Unfortunately, he's not close with his surviving family and I get the feeling I'm one of the only people in his life interested in his Navy service. He literally lights up when I see him, always asking about my Seabee son and ready to talk about his days on the Tin Cans. You can bet I'm always willing to listen.

HH

My cousin was a radar operator aboard the Maddox during the Gulf of Tonkin incident. I remember my aunt and grandmother being in a real funk because he was aboard the Maddox when that went down.
He was one of the two people that convinced me to go Navy. The other being my high school American History teacher. He was a corpsman in the Navy, in the Pacific, during World War II.